E. Lynn Harris was born in Flint, Michigan and raised, along with
three sisters, in Little Rock, Arkansas. He attended the University
of Arkansas at Fayetteville where he was the school's first black
yearbook editor, the first black male Razorbacks cheerleader, and
the president of his fraternity. He graduated with honors with a
degree in journalism.

Harris sold computers for IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and AT&T for 13
years while living in Dallas, Washington, D.C. and Atlanta. He finally
quit his sales job to write his first novel, Invisible Life,
and, failing to find a publisher, he published it himself in 1991
and sold it mostly at black-owned bookstores, beauty salons, and
book clubs before he was "discovered" by Anchor Books. Anchor published
Invisible Life as a trade paperback in 1994, and thus
his career as an author was "officially" launched.

Invisible Life was followed by Just As I Am
(1994), AndThis Too Shall Pass(1996), If
This World Were Mine(1997), and Abide With Me
(1999), all published by Doubleday. All of Harris's books have been
bestsellers; And This Too Shall Pass, If This
World Were Mine , Abide With Me, Not
A Day Goes Byand A Love of My Ownwere New
York Times bestsellers. They also appeared on the bestseller
lists of the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Publishers
Weekly, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, and Los Angeles
Times. Harris's sixth novel,Not A Day Goes By(July
2000) debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list
and was a #1 Publishers Weekly bestseller for two consecutive
weeks. His seventh novel, Any Way the Wind Blows (July
2001), also debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller
list. His most recent novel, A Love of My Own (July
2002), was a national bestseller as well. Currently, there are over
three million copies of Harris's novels in print.

Three of his novels have been optioned for film: Invisible
Lifeand Just As I Amby Showtime andNot A Day Goes Byby actress Pam Grier for her
production company. Harris's writing has also appeared in American
Visions, Essence, the Washington Post Sunday Magazine , Savoy, The Advocate,and the
award-winning anthology Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men
in America, Go The Way Your Blood Beats.
His novella, "Money Can't Buy Me Love" was published in Got
To Be Real: Four Original Love Stories (December 2000).
In fall 2002, his short fiction will appear in Gumbo: A Celebration
of African American Writers(Harlem Moon), a collection
he also co-edited with writer Marita Golden.

Harris has won numerous accolades and prizes for his work. In 1996,Just As I Amwas awarded Blackboard's Novel of the Year
prize. In 1997, If This World Were Mine was nominated
for a NAACP Image Award and won the James Baldwin Award for Literary
Excellence. Abide With Me,Any Way the Wind Blows,
and A Love of My Own were also nominated for NAACP
Image Awards. In 2002 Any Way the Wind Blows won Harris
his second Blackboard Novel of the Year prize, and A Love
of My Own was recently named Blackboard Novel of the Year,
making Harris the first author to receive back-to-back honors and
to receive the prize a record three times.

In 1999, the University of Arkansas honored Harris with a Citation
of Distinguished Alumni for outstanding professional achievement,
and in October 2000, he was inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall
of Fame. Over the past three years, he has also been named to Ebony's
"Most Intriguing Blacks" list, Out Magazine's "Out
100" list, New York Magazine's "Gay Power 101"
list, and Savoy's "100 Leaders and Heroes in Black America"
list. Other honors have included the Sprague Todes Literary Award and the Harvey Milk Honorary Diploma. Harris is a member of the Board of Directors of the Hurston/Wright Foundation and the Evidence Dance Company.

In addition to his publishing pursuits, Harris has also completed
a screenplay for a remake of the 1970's African American classic
film Sparkle (to be produced by Warner Brothers with Deborah
Martin Chase and Whitney Houston) and has been tapped by Fox Television
to write the pilot of a new dramatic series. He made his Broadway
debut in the fall of 2001, appearing as the narrator in a benefit
performance of "Dreamgirls," starring Lillias White, Heather
Headley and Audra McDonald. He later returned to Broadway for one
night in "Love Letters to America," alongside Rosie Perez, Annabella
Sciorra and other prominent New York film and theater personalities.

A popular college lecturer, Harris has spoken at the University of Arkansas, Harvard University, Hampton University, Spelman College, Morehouse College, Florida A&M, Ohio State, George Washington University, University of Georgia, University of Illinois, University of Tennessee, Stanford University, College of William and Mary, Virginia Tech, Tufts, Tennessee State University, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Florida, Louisiana State, University of South Carolina, and South Carolina State. This fall, Harris will be a visiting professor in the English department at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, his alma mater.

An avid University of Arkansas Razorbacks fan, Harris divides his time between Fayetteville, Arkansas and Atlanta, Georgia.